Automated peanut smut damage assessment on intact pod bulks by using X-ray devices and proprietary software

M. VALENTE; J. BALDESSARI; P. PÉREZ; F. MALANO

Córdoba

Conferencia; Ninth International Conference of the Peanut Research Community, Advances in Arachis through Genomics & Biotechnology (AAGB-2017); 2017

Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología de Córdoba; Instituto de Botánica del Nordeste (IBONE, UNNE-CONICET); Cámara Argentina del Maní

Peanut smut, caused by Thecaphorafrezzii, is an endemic disease of growing intensity in the Cordobapeanut growing area of Argentina. Usual smut damage assessment is done after harvest by manually opening pods and rating incidence and severity on them. This task is slow and arduous. Consequently, the development of a new, fast and undemanding technique that allows smut intensity evaluation in intact pods bulks is sorely needed. The use of X-rays imaging techniques allows the construction of absorption/transmission maps that characterize the physical and morphological properties of a sample (e.g. a peanut pods bulk) thus allowing a dedicated software to estimate the quantity of diverse components in the sample (smut spore masses among them) and to assess QA analysis. The present work assesses smut damage on small peanut pod bulks by using an in-house built X-ray microCT facility and proprietary software and explores the development of 2D x-ray devices allowing a similar but faster and cheaper assessment to be done upon arrival of farmer peanuts to the buying station.